Other than being cheaper than those of the large bullet manufacturers such as Sierra etc, what are the pros and cons in a Lee-Enfield #4, #5 or Yugo Mauser? Other than extra cleaning, what would be a drawback?

Am a brand-new reloader and only work with fresh Prvi Partizan .303, in order to have what others call thick cases.
So far, the only bullets used are standard fmj 147 grain from a few private sellers and a store or two, using HMR 4064 powder, 39 grains.

Will try 8mm reloads next, but the only cheap bullets appear to be cast lead, and don't know what "boolits" are, unless insider slang.

The single objective is long-term economical reloading, for fun plinking and nothing else, except to avoid using good stash of surplus .303 and 8mm, mostly kept in reserve.

This is a subject I know about. 1st off not all cast bullets are the same. Boolits comes from cast boolits.com. You really need to understand the die/style used for your intended purpose. One of the top manufacturers is Beartooth bullets. Marshalls stuff is second to none, but pricey. For rifles such as yours you want to use Gas check bullets w/ a velocity of 2000+-fps. You won't need to develop loads as w/ jacketed bullets. I have recipes for 8x57, .303, 9.3x57, 6.5x55 and 7.62x54r. Last year I started using Glenhills cast bullets. Excellent prices. His e-mail is gutshot_again@yahoo.com. Don't buy a spirepoint lead bullet, not worth it as the bullet will deform if pushed to fast. I use .323 170grFN GC cast lead for short range hunting and as a reduced load for my kids(100 yards). 285gr 9.3 shoot and perform as well on game as 286gr top end JSP. Glenhills average $12.00 per 100 gas check bullets. If you don't use GC you will get allot of leading in the barrel. W/ a pistol caliber rifle the GC is not nessesary since the velocity is much less. Let me know if you need any recipes. BTW, if you order frm Glenhills tell Vern, JP in NH says hello.
You can also sign up for Midway USA E-blast e-mails. They have a blemished bullet sale once or twice a year. The case color on these bullets is off, that is all.

Thanks very much for the useful info.
My brother found me some 8mm dies at a small auction in Evansville last week.

For economical reloading, which is why I got the time-consuming basic
'Lee Ann. Kit' (slow balance scale etc), would using cast boolits with minimum powder loads in new 8mm Prvi shells possibly allow three or four firings, if done correctly?

Am about to use Prvi today in one of my "Jungle Carbines" for the fourth time with the same brass. Have no idea how accurate, and don't care at this point- just want to see if the brass will still look normal.
My targets are objects on a river bank at 40-120 feet, seldom go to the range.

Annealing is heating the case neck. I use a propane torch. It makes the brass softer, having more spring holds the bullet tighter w/ equal force over the neck area while giving more reloads. If you ever notice, some brass has a slightly different modeled color on the neck of the brass, that is annealed brass. Here is an article that explains it better than I can. The Art and Science of Annealing

The only cost is the price of propane. A $3.75 bottle of propane will do thousands of cases.

The SMILE are a strange breed of rifle and here are a couple of tips. The actions are springy due to their design. US manufactured brass is lighter and undersized dimentioned, and even though it head spaces on the case rim, a lot of movement goes on as it expands to fit the chamber. Neck size only and do not full length size the cases. I don't agree with anneal of the necks to prolong case life. The failures occur in the case body just up from the rim.
Case separation occurs around the body simular to that of a belted case. With US cases it can happen after four or five loadings. Norma are unaffordable and used to supply Herters at reasonable prices. They are closer to dimention and heavier than US. Also when I had nothing but time,
I tried the military cases, but Berdan primers suck. They were the best for multiple reloads, and the heaviest brass. It very well might be Privi being made in Europe will be great, no clue as I haven't used them.
I put a lot of various rounds experimenting with loads though a T Sniper and found many .308 bullets did well in it. Never slugged the bore for true dimentions. Cast .3085 in 180 grain gas check with 3031 and 4895 proved accurate as some of the jacketed .311/312 bullets. For awhile, the Brits were taking these very same rifles, beefing up the receivers to take the spring out of them, and rebarreled them to 308 or 7.62 x 51. This was strictly for target rifles, and not a combat item.
Check for case separation after a couple of reloads. You can feel them start by running a paper clip up and down on the inside of the case or a shinney line running around the outside of the case just up a ways from the rim. Sometimes a case separated will come out easy with a tap on the ground with the rifle butt, and others are not that easy. Best to retire the case when they begin to show signs.

The SMILE are a strange breed of rifle and here are a couple of tips. For awhile, the Brits were taking these very same rifles, beefing up the receivers to take the spring out of them, and rebarreled them to 308 or 7.62 x 51. This was strictly for target rifles, and not a combat item.